Technology has exponentially facilitated the capacity to generate, share and store information, acting as the backbone of our knowledge-based economy. But that same technological capacity that supports our economy is negatively impacting our justice system. It has created enormous problems for trial lawyers and their clients, who are regularly challenged to sift through terabytes of information to find relevant, privileged or confidential material in a way that is accurate, consistent and yet cost-effective.
When one case can require sorting through a terabyte of data, the result can be 75 million pages for review, taking up to 375,000 hours of time. Studies have estimated that document review accounts for 50 to 90 percent of the cost involved in litigation matters, and one report has suggested that 70 percent or more of the cost of discovery is now attributable solely to human review of documents for responsiveness and privilege.
The problem with purely human review of documents is not just a problem of time and money. It is one of consistency and accuracy as well. Dozens of reviewers working on thousands of documents a day are bound to sort and code documents differently based on their subjective judgments, experience levels, fatigue and other factors. Even with sound quality control checks, the risks of making a mistake are substantial, and the results can be devastating: discovery sanctions, loss of trade secrets, loss of attorney-client privilege, or a bad outcome at trial. The mounting costs and exposures associated with human document review can affect even the calculus of whether to sue, defend or settle for any given claim.